


Delirium

by Rangergirl3



Series: Whumptober 2019 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 07:56:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20888726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: Lance wants to help his friend...but he might not be able to.





	Delirium

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as a continuation of my work 'Shards of Glass' (in my Bad Things Happen Bingo collection)

"...L'nce...?"

It's not the first time Keith's asked if he's still here, and Lance knows it won't be the last. Even so, he lifts one hand away from keeping pressure on the steadily bleeding injury just long enough to pat the Red Paladin's shoulder as reassuringly as he can. 

"Right here, buddy," he says, again, even though he knows his friend can neither see nor hear him. The damn poison's effects have finally hit, and until Coran gets here with an antidote, Lance knows they're both in for a rough time. "It's gonna be fine, yeah? The others are on their way."

He says it to reassure himself, but, just like before, the Red Paladin continues to shiver.

Lance lays the back of one hand against Keith's forehead.

It's far too warm.

_Fever_.

_A complication from the poison on the weapon?_

_Maybe._

Lance curses under his breath, wishing he had some kind of blanket to put over his friend, but there's nothing he can do right now except keep pressure on the awful injury on Keith's back.

_There's already so much blood on the floor._

Lance sets his jaw and resumes his efforts to keep what little blood remains in Keith's body _there_ until help can arrive.

He forces himself to shut his mind to the awful sounds of pain that Keith makes as he does so.

* * *

* * *

Pain makes reality blur into memory.

_They're hurting him again._

Keith doesn't know why. He never does.

_What did he do wrong this time?_

He asks, but they don't give an answer. 

_They never do._

* * *

* * *

Lance thinks he's doing pretty well at this whole emergency-caretaker-business until Keith begins shuddering from head to foot. It's different than the shivering - it's harsher, and although it clearly hurts him, Keith doesn't seem to know what's going on around him any longer.

_Oh, Dios - please be okay, Keith, please be okay - _

Lance focuses on keeping the make-shift bandages in place. The non-stop shuddering has caused the wound's blood flow to increase.

"..._h_.._hurts_..."

Lance forces himself to continue holding the bandages down, even though Keith is clearly in pain. 

"...'_se_...t-tell m-me..."

Lance shuts his eyes, trying to blot out the terrified sobs.

_"...w-why_...?"

This vulnerability is something Lance has never, ever seen from Keith before, and hurts his heart to hear it in his friend's voice.

It's Keith without his barriers up, a Keith who's scared and alone and helpless and _hurting._

But Lance isn't trying to hurt him, he _isn't_.

_Is there any way he can he help Keith realize that?_

* * *

* * *

The pain only increases. 

_...He must...have done...something...really bad..._

There's no way to know. 

_They never tell him why they're mad at him. They just -_

The pressure on his injury increases, and _pain_ radiates from it, across his back and throughout his entire body, in waves of agony so intense he wishes he could force his mind to leave his body behind, the way he learned how to long, long ago, because it made the pain bearable, at least until he had time to hide somewhere, but -

_It **hurts**_.

Keith starts crying.

_He knows he shouldn't, but he can't help it._

It only makes them angrier.

_Maybe...if he says... that he's sorry...they'll stop hurting him._

He doesn't think it will, though.

_They never listen to him...but he doesn't know what else to do._

He can't get away.

_They won't let him._

* * *

* * *

Lance blinks away tears when Keith stammers out that he's sorry, please, he'll be better, he won't talk back anymore, please, just - please, stop, _please_, it _hurts_ -

It's...it's _awful_, realizing what his friend must have lived through.

Lance doesn't fully understand the details of what must have happened, but the results, years and years later, make it clear enough.

_Keith didn't have a family like Lance did_.

_Instead, he was hurt by people who should have taken care of him, and hurt badly enough that he had broken under their treatment, time and time again._

_The scars made out of golden light had shown that much, at least._

Up until today, the Blue Paladin hadn't even realized that there could be invisible scars on someone's heart, but now that he did, Lance promised himself that he would do everything he could to help Keith know that things were different now.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are loved!! <3 I absolutely love hearing which parts hit you the hardest, or which lines were your favorites <3 :-)
> 
> I'm on Tumblr, come say hi! :D


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